Mario Williams?

In the interest of accuracy, (1) when the Packers signed Woodson he was 29 years old. Certainly not "young" but I wouldn't characterize that as "old" either. In that free agent period, the (2) Tampa Bay Bucs expressed interest in Woodson and perhaps even offered him a contract, but they wanted him as a safety, not at CB. So he did have an alternative. (3) He could be characterized as injury prone at the time and he had a reputation as a problem in the locker room. So this "fact check" scores this post one out of three.

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I can't let myself be slandered like that!

Fresh into the first free agency of his career, Woodson was nothing less than radioactive. He spent two months as an NFL orphan, holding out for something, anything better than Green Bay. All the while, his agent would shrug, and Woodson would stare at the ticker at the bottom of his television, cursing when his name was never mentioned amongst the best available free agents. Eight seasons into his NFL career, his Heisman Trophy, All-Pro credentials and reputation as a lethal shutdown specialist had been cast into the abyss. And that’s precisely where Woodson thought he was going when Green Bay was his one and only option.

Woodson has stated that at the time of the free agent contract signing he "did not want to come to Green Bay" due to a perception that the city is less than cosmopolitan, but was forced to do so because the Packers were the only team to offer him a contract.
The cornerback has since lauded the Packers organization, Mike McCarthy, and the people of the state of Wisconsin for having faith in him, and has declared that "it was truly a blessing coming to Green Bay."

Not a single team wanted Woodson anymore to be a cornerback on their team, even though he was a FREE agent and they'd not lose a single draft pick, even a 7th rounder, for him.
Tampa Bay was semi-interested but only if he'd give up the idea of playing CB anymore.

So my fact check score I think is 3 out of 3 because that is what I said in reference to the point that Woodson vs Super Mario is 180 degrees different: nobody else was bidding against us, whereas Mario would be loved by every other 30 teams. Which means let's not even pretend we're in the race for him.

Ted would never outbid or outsell a coveted free agent. Let's not give him more credit than he deserves. Woodson just fell into his lap.
Actually, Ted was lucky as hell because Ted first tried to blow that wad of money on a different free agent first, but that guy turned down Ted even though Ted offered him more money. That was Lavar Arrington, who would not last even one season after using Ted to get more money in the NFC East. Ironic that the then-injury prone Woodson would turn out so durable for us while Lavar broke right away, career over.

It is always nice to dream a little dream once in a while. I would love it if we could get him but I don't count. I just wish for a top 10 defense that we can count on for a 3 and out when we really need it.

Ted has a plan and the plan works. He is not going to get in a position where signing a guy like this is going to mean losing two or three good players later because the money is not there. We are always sweating who we can hold onto. How bad you think thats going to be if we put the numbers up it's going to take to grab this guy? Besides, we don't need this to be a good team. The Packers are already a good team. GM's that sign guys like this are trying to save their butts. That's how it works.

Every team has issues. Thanks to Ted our issues are far less reaching than most all the other teams out there and that's why I say he won't reach for Williams. Our D under performed last year. Hard to figure when they played that much better the year before with most all the same guys. Capers will figure it out and they are not missing much so I am confident the D will be much better in '12. And they don't need Williams for that to happen.

Ted has a plan and the plan works. He is not going to get in a position where signing a guy like this is going to mean losing two or three good players later because the money is not there. We are always sweating who we can hold onto. How bad you think thats going to be if we put the numbers up it's going to take to grab this guy? Besides, we don't need this to be a good team. The Packers are already a good team. GM's that sign guys like this are trying to save their butts. That's how it works.

Every team has issues. Thanks to Ted our issues are far less reaching than most all the other teams out there and that's why I say he won't reach for Williams. Our D under performed last year. Hard to figure when they played that much better the year before with most all the same guys. Capers will figure it out and they are not missing much so I am confident the D will be much better in '12. And they don't need Williams for that to happen.

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How do you post 1800+ times and not get a single 'like'? Especially when your post makes so much sense. Anywho - you got one now.

Locking up the majority of your money on two guys on the team? I hope they do.

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If you think about it, the Bears defensive window is slowly closing. Urlacher, Briggs, Tillman and Peppers are all over 30 years old. Williams could be a go for broke type move. Bears are currently around $27M under the cap. Peppers and Williams are a scarey combo.

I can't let myself be slandered like that! …Not a single team wanted Woodson anymore to be a cornerback on their team…

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First, it's not slander because I didn't say it, so you probably meant "libel". But it's not libel because truth is an absolute defense to a charge of libel. You didn't post that no one wanted Woodson to play CB. You posted:

If you think about it, the Bears defensive window is slowly closing. Urlacher, Briggs, Tillman and Peppers are all over 30 years old. Williams could be a go for broke type move. Bears are currently around $27M under the cap. Peppers and Williams are a scarey combo.

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I thought Peppers was the go for broke move.

I would love for the Bears to sign Williams. I cheered when they signed Peppers. Somehow these things just never add up the way they look on paper. Tossing successful players into the mix, maybe because you need to build chemistry, or something I don't know, but it never seems to turn out the way you want. Everyone was touting the Eagles as SB candidates last year. How did their superstar FA Ashomuga do? Poorly. How is that possible when he was such a shut down corner in Oakland? In the end the Eagles defense got worse. I'm not sure that will happen to the Bears, but over the course of his contract if they sign Williams - the Bears will likely be worse off.

I think the Packers are unique in philosophy going back to the beginning of the Thompson /McCarthy era. They have transitioned the team thru youth via the draft right out of the shoot when Thompson got here and drafted what? Eleven players his first year? You have McCarthy who seems to be fine with getting young players ready and not really looking at the fact some rookies will have to play. He expects them all to be ready AND he does a good job with his staff getting them ready.
It's pretty remarkable, really, when you consider these guys went through the entire offense including the Oline, QB, RB's, actually everybody but Driver and Clifton. Yet we have one of the very best O's in football. Then, we go with the 3-4 on Defense that ended the marriage with our best D player in Kampman and a LOT of young guys have had to step up. Williams, Mathews, Raji, Shields, Burnett, Zombo & Company. All at one point with little to no NFL game time under their belts. I mean the only players who actually got some "weening" time were Bishop and Rodgers. This is the main reason I am optimistic. Young players get better until they get too old to get better. We have a lot of those. Thompson's got this. McCarthy is good with it. The Packers are going to be fine.

I think the Packers are unique in philosophy going back to the beginning of the Thompson /McCarthy era. They have transitioned the team thru youth via the draft right out of the shoot when Thompson got here and drafted what? Eleven players his first year? You have McCarthy who seems to be fine with getting young players ready and not really looking at the fact some rookies will have to play. He expects them all to be ready AND he does a good job with his staff getting them ready.
It's pretty remarkable, really, when you consider these guys went through the entire offense including the Oline, QB, RB's, actually everybody but Driver and Clifton. Yet we have one of the very best O's in football. Then, we go with the 3-4 on Defense that ended the marriage with our best D player in Kampman and a LOT of young guys have had to step up. Williams, Mathews, Raji, Shields, Burnett, Zombo & Company. All at one point with little to no NFL game time under their belts. I mean the only players who actually got some "weening" time were Bishop and Rodgers. This is the main reason I am optimistic. Young players get better until they get too old to get better. We have a lot of those. Thompson's got this. McCarthy is good with it. The Packers are going to be fine.

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Really really good post. I joke around about us signing mario williams because I know it won't happen and the idea of a big name free agent coming to green bay, maybe even taking a pay cut, to win a super bowl is fun to think about. You are 100% correct though, Packers have done an incredible job preparing their young players to play. How many people besides me think Raji would have been substantially worse if he was in most of the other organizations in the NFL.

I would love for the Bears to sign Williams. I cheered when they signed Peppers. Somehow these things just never add up the way they look on paper. Tossing successful players into the mix, maybe because you need to build chemistry, or something I don't know, but it never seems to turn out the way you want. Everyone was touting the Eagles as SB candidates last year. How did their superstar FA Ashomuga do? Poorly. How is that possible when he was such a shut down corner in Oakland? In the end the Eagles defense got worse. I'm not sure that will happen to the Bears, but over the course of his contract if they sign Williams - the Bears will likely be worse off.

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Peppers has been the best free agent signing any team has made in the past two years. He has been the most disruptive defensive end in football for two years now. I was doing the opposite of cheering